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FIGURE 7.6 Record of sea-level rise (solid line-left axis) from 18,000 years ago to the present that was obtained from the calcium carbonate of reef corals, Acropora palmata, in the Caribbean Sea near Barbados. Based on oxygen isotope changes in seawater composition, two principal pulses of meltwater into the ocean (dashed line-right axis) occurred around 13,000 years ago (meltwater pulse 1a) and 10,000 years ago (meltwater pulse 1b) with an intervening climatic cooling period called the Younger Dryas. As the Younger Dryas was ending, starting 10,000 years ago, the Earth system entered the current climatic regime, which is called the Holocene. Modified from Fairbanks (1989).

15,000

5,000

Time (1000 years before present)

FIGURE 7.6 Record of sea-level rise (solid line-left axis) from 18,000 years ago to the present that was obtained from the calcium carbonate of reef corals, Acropora palmata, in the Caribbean Sea near Barbados. Based on oxygen isotope changes in seawater composition, two principal pulses of meltwater into the ocean (dashed line-right axis) occurred around 13,000 years ago (meltwater pulse 1a) and 10,000 years ago (meltwater pulse 1b) with an intervening climatic cooling period called the Younger Dryas. As the Younger Dryas was ending, starting 10,000 years ago, the Earth system entered the current climatic regime, which is called the Holocene. Modified from Fairbanks (1989).